Remembering Author Sharon Donovan this Christmas. Please Help Spread the Word with Hywela Lyn!

It's hard to believe that there are only four days left until Christmas! Welcome to A Writer's Mind's, third annual, WHAT EVERY WOMAN WANTS BENEATH HER CHRISTMAS TREE BLOG EVENT. Today I'm thrilled to welcome back friend and talented author, Hywela Lyn, who will be sharing a little holiday cheer with us. In addition, Lyn will be sharing a 'just released' story by Sharon Donovan, a beloved author lost to us.

Lyn is graciously giving away a READER'S CHOICE of any title from her backlist to one lucky commenter.

YULETIDE NOTE: I encourage you to leave a comment for a chance to win each featured author's given prize (Include email addy). Their individual winners will be announced in a comment after their post. In addition, be sure to enter the Rafflecopter provided after each post as often as you like for a chance to win the grand prize, three $30 Amazon Gift Cards, 12+ ebooks and over six print novels. Three winners drawn and announced December 26th, 2012. Click on 'Ready to be Served?' at the top of this blog to find the itinerary.

My favourite Christmas Things


I love Christmas. If we're lucky, we'll have some snow. Despite all the inconvenience and problems it causes, for me, snow really makes Christmas seem – well, more like Christmas! (This is a picture of the old windmill near where I live and where I enjoy walking my dog on Christmas day.) I love all the preparations, from baking the Christmas cake and making the special sherry trifle, to decorating the house and Christmas tree.  I don’t like starting Christmas preparations too early, but once I start I find it really exciting.  




My husband and I enjoy a pre-Christmas visit to the local Garden Centre, at the end of November. As well as Christmas trees and poinsettias, cyclamen and other winter flowering pants, the garden centre also sells loads of Christmas decorations and gifts.

It is prettily decorated at this special time of year, with little alcoves featuring polar bears and penguins - and even Father Christmas himself, with shelves and shelves of Christmas trimmings, stars, angels, penguins, bears, squirrels and reindeer.

I usually manage to pick up a few more decorations for the tree (I’m amazed I manage to fit them all on the tree as I tend to buy one or two more from the Christmas tree farm as well.) in addition to choosing some gifts for friends, some chocolate teddy bears and snowmen, and, of course, my favourite bottle of Christmas mead! There are so many lovely things on show. If I ever came into money I think I’d buy the lot! 

It’s too early to buy holly and mistletoe yet, we’ll get that from the Christmas tree farm, the other place which is becoming a traditional trip for us, where we’ll pick out our own Christmas tree from the hundreds available, grown specially on the farm, and brought in from the fields by Shire horses. As you’ll have gathered, not for me the supermarket for our Christmas decorations, I love the atmosphere of the garden centre, and the Christmas tree farm.  We’ll probably pop into our local farm shop as well, for their delicious cranberry jelly, mincemeat, and some other home produced delicacies.

As I said at the beginning, I love snow, and the lovely Christmas atmosphere it imparts.  I haven’t written any full length Christmas stories so far, the nearest I’ve got is the snow and ice covered planet Niflheim, which features in ‘Starquest’ and ‘Children Of The Mist’. I must mention one very special Christmas release this year though.

As many of you  know, the wonderfully talented Sharon Donovan, passed away in April this year, after a long battle with diabetes.  When Mary and I visited her family in May, we were thrilled to find a more or less complete, unpublished manuscript on her computer.  Her editor, Lori Graham, has worked really hard to get this edited and ready to publish.  It came out as an E-book from The Wild Rose press on 5th December. It’s called ‘Kiss Of Death’ and is set in Louisianna, at Christmas, and features Sharon’s fantastic hunky character ‘Oliver’.  It’s a wonderful ‘edge-of-your-seat suspense and would make a wonderful  Christmas present for a friend’s E-reader, or for your own.

Here’s the blurb:

KISS OF DEATH

Santa Must Die. The words in Camille Lafayette's dream are a chilling prelude of events to come. She sees herself as the killer, and when the murder is actually committed, she becomes the prime suspect.

When handsome Detective Oliver Sharone turns up at her New Orleans family home, he is searching for answers. The evidence against her seems damning. An image captured on the victim's camera resembles Camille, and the red feather mask worn by the murderer came from her shop.The instant chemistry between Camille and Oliver is an added complication, which grows deeper as they work together to discover the truth. It becomes a race against time to find the real murderer before he not only loses his heart completely, but the killer strikes again. And this time the victim could be Camille herself.

You can purchase ‘Kiss of Death’ HERE.

Sky here. Lyn, thank you for sharing a little bit of your Christmas with me again this year. More than that, thank you so much for not only finding but helping to spread the word about this story by Sharon. (made me tear up) She was such a lovely person and is so very missed. God bless.

Visit Lyn's, Website, Blog, Amazon Page (US) and Amazon Page (UK)

Don't forget to comment for a chance to win Lyn's giveaway! Then be sure to enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win even more.  

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c587a91/